Monthly Archives: December 2012

Item 1 (Tom)
Right first things first before we start talking Snowballs, let me remind you of something that is coming to a close the account linking promotion, you have until the 12th to qualify for the reward, which you earn simply by registering your account with perfect world.

The Reward contains:

• 5,000 Unrefined Dilithium Ore

• A consumable item that grants 2,500 EXP (or Bridge Officer skill points if your character is at max level)

• A random Rare or Very Rare weapon, scaled to your level (space or ground)

• A pack of random ‘Self’ Dual Consumables

• A pack of random ‘Team’ Dual Consumables

NOTE: This item may only be claimed once per account. If you claim it on one character, you will not be able to claim it on a different one. This promotion originally started on June 19th, 2012, so you may have already taken part in this promotion and claimed your rewards in-game.

A word of warning though , you must use the exact same log in details as you do now,or it will be treated as a new account!

To celebrate the festive season of the end of the year, Q returns with his fabulous winter planet and all of its games and amusements! Starting December 6th around 10am PST and lasting until January 14th around 10am PST, Q’s Winter Wonderland will be accessible again by speaking with Q on Qo’noS or Earth Spacedock. Q will transport you to his spruced-up and improved winter valley.
you’ll find a new cozy gazebo added for socializing. The various vendors and the tailor are now located in the gazebo. From there, you can follow signs to special events, or you can head out into the snow to explore.

(Aaron)
But it’s dangerous out there . . . be sure to pick up some snowballs from the piles that you’ll find scattered about the area, since you’ll need them. Q’s decided to add a little fun by animating the snowmen and sending them to keep you frosty, and you can only stop them with a barrage of snowballs! Every half-hour, the snowmen will come to a semblance of life and hunt people down with the intention of freezing them. If you’re frozen by a snow flurry, though, don’t worry – you’ll just remain out of the battle for a little while before returning as good as new. Participating in the snowball fight gives you a chance to win boxes of winter commodities, which you can trade for new costumes and prizes.

For those who are of a mind to challenge other captains, Q’s added a new race, somewhat like the famous endurance race of Starfleet Academy – a multi-captain competitive race on a new slippery ice track. In between snowball fights, the race announcer will call out the new competitive race and count down to the start. Everyone who wants to race can assemble at the new track for the “Fast and the Flurrious”. If you’re in the wooden-plank starting zone, you’ll see a large ‘WAITING FOR RACE’ tag over your captain. Then, wait for the race to start; once the starting gate drops, run the course as fast as you can and grab the flag at the end! The race will reward the first place, second place, and third place winners, with a token award for those who run the whole race but don’t place. This race will give you new epohh tags that can be used to breed special winter epohhs with the help of a Romulan researcher at the gazebo.

(Tom)

you can still participate in all of the old winter cheer. Track down the snowmen to earn accolades. Skate on the icy lake and be sure to practice some new skating leaps when you wear ice skates. Most importantly, be sure to run the “Fastest Game on Ice” race, because this will reward you with winter gift boxes that may contain parts to help build the best prize of all.
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So what prizes are there?
Well The Holiday Collectibles first seen during last year’s Winter Event will be making a return, and are the same items previously seen. Although, as a slight change from last year’s appearance, players will be able to freely trade them during this year’s event. Unfortunately, only new copies of these items obtained during this year’s event will be unbound, but any bound copies players may still have from last year’s event can still be utilized to obtain the same prizes as this year’s. Be careful stacking old versions and new together.

(Shervin )

These commodities or items are;

Andorian Sleigh Bells
Bajoran Gratitude Beads
Terran Holiday Ornaments
Bolian Candles
Targ Fur Earmuffs
Vulcan Meditation Incense
Players will be able to obtain these Holiday Collectibles in two ways: Either participation in the Snowball Fight against Q’s dastardly snow beasts, or by purchasing a Holiday Collectible Bundle from the Lobi Crystal Consortium (The price is 5 Lobi Crystal, during the Winter Event).
This year brand new prizes have been added to the list.

Holiday Foods: All of the various Holiday Foods that were offered during last year’s event will once again be available, but have been improved. All buff durations have been extended to 30 minutes, and each of these festive consumables will be 150% as effective as they previously were, but only while the Winter Event is active (afterwards, they will return to their previous effectiveness). These food items can be fed to Tribbles to create …
Winter Tribble: By feeding any of the Holiday Foods to any standard Tribble, you may breed this festive furball. Petting this breed will grant captains with resistance to Repel, Knockback and Cold Damage, and will extend this buff to all nearby allies while the Winter Event is active.

(Aaron)
Unmelting Snowballs: Although free Snowballs can be picked up from any of the various piles that dot the Winter Wonderland, they will melt after only about 10 minutes. These special “Unmelting” versions are the same timeless Snowballs as previously available, albeit with improved descriptions. Each purchase will net you 10 Snowballs that can be thrown at friends, or used to combat the Snowman threat on Q’s Winter Wonderland. And since they do not melt, you could also stockpile a collection to be thrown at unsuspecting targets long after the Winter Event has ended.

(Colin )
Frosted Boots: Additional animations have been added while skating on Q’s frozen lake while you have these active. They will also no longer possess expiration timers, and can be used indefinitely once purchased. Which is different to last year when they had a 40 minute timer.

One for Aaron here Holiday Scarves: In addition to the selection of 3 different styles that were previously available to players, one more variant each for Klingon and Federation players. Additionally, these items can now be purchased in gift boxes that can be given to other players. So if your feeling generous you can treat your friends and fleet mates.

(Tom)
Winter Jacket: A new costume has been crafted that will be available for both Federation and Klingon players. This jacket comes in three different stylish lengths, each available in Brown, Black and White variations.

Snowball Weaponry: If lobbing Snowballs is just not your thing, captains will be able to use their Holiday Collectibles to purchase specialized weaponry designed by Q specifically for the purpose of combatting the Snowman threat. (Although only functional on Q’s Winter Wonderland), the Full Auto Snowball Launcher and the Snow Boulder Assault Launcher will make driving back the frosty menace both easier and more enjoyable.

(Shervin)
Nanopulse Lirpa or Bat’leth: Functionally identical to last year’s model, this year’s Nanopulse versions of each of these traditional melee weapons will glow with a distinctive Purple hue when activated by Federation or Klingon personnel.

Snowman Pet: Another of Q’s contrivances, this small device automatically assembles a snowman that will be able to follow you around where ever your travels may take you, but only so long as the Winter Event is active. If the device is activated after the end of the Winter Event, the snowman it constructs will no longer be animated.

(Aaron)

Players will also be able to utilize Holiday Collectibles in a new Featured Starbase Project that will, when completed, allow Fleets to display a special Breen Ship ornament in their Starbase interior. This decoration can be toggled on and off once active, and the featured project will cost only Holiday Collectibles – no other inputs will be required.

Aside from these Holiday Collectibles, participating “The Fast and the Flurrious” (Q’s new competitive winter race) will reward players with special Snow Epohh Tags which can be used in Duty Officer assignments to breed special snowy variants of the critters recently discovered on New Romulus. Once you have obtained a few Epohh Tags, speak with the Winter Epohh Researcher at the gazebo to work on breeding your own Snow Epohh pet.

(Tom)

Both the Holiday Collectibles and Snow Epohh Tags can also be traded in at a special terminal in the gazebo, in exchange for small amounts of Gold-Pressed Latinum. The same terminal will give players access to a Gold-Pressed Latinum vendor, which includes a number of new Personal Holo Emitters that can be used on ground maps to alter the appearance of your captain into forms such as a Reman Guard Captain, a Jem’Hadar First, or even a Borg Drone! These Personal Holo Emitters will also now be available for purchase at Deep Space Nine, near the Dabo table.

And last, but certainly not least, we must certainly discuss the Grand Prize of the Winter Event.

The Breen Chel Grett Warships, previously a ship exclusively owned and operated by the Breen Confederacy, have found their way into the hands of the entrepreneurial Ferengi that runs the Holiday Collectible store at Q’s Gazebo. And he is willing to part with these rare and impressive starships! But he asks a small favor in return

You see, this particular Ferengi happens to be an eternally devoted fan to the Illustrious Q, and would do practically anything to get his hands on memorabilia to complete his collection of rare Q-related artifacts. Specifically, he is asking for one thousand (1,000) Autographed 8×10 Glossy Pictures of Q, in return for each Breen Warship.

Each day you will be gifted with forty (40) Autographed 8×10 Glossy Pictures of Q upon completing the “Fastest Game on Ice” (the same race seen during last year’s Winter Event). This means that player captains that can participate in the event 25 times during the 35+ days that the Winter Event will be active, will have earned their way to a FREE Starship!

If, by some stroke of bad luck, you find yourself incapable of participating in the event the required number of times, this does not mean you’ll have missed your chance to earn the Breen Warship! The Lobi Crystal Consortium is selling “Q’s Appreciation Package” for just 5 Lobi Crystal, which will contain 2-6 of his sought-after Autographs.

(Shervin)

The Breen Chel Grett Warship comes with an Energy Dissipator console which fires a targetable Energy Dissipating Blast that causes significant subsystem drain and has a chance to knock a single subsystem offline for a short duration. The Energy Dissipator can be equipped in any console slot on any Breen ship. Just think of the massive battle in DS9 when the Breen gave Sisko and the other Federation ships a rather unpleasant surprise.

Now something to remember The box that the ship comes in, which cannot be opened until the minimum rank listed above, is BOUND! upon pickup. So make sure you complete this task on the toon you want to fly it!

The next special feature is, “Belongs in a Museum.” While exploring throughout New Romulus, both the Federation and Klingon Defense Force have acquired ancient relics that they’ve brought back to their embassies to put on display. They have also received a gift from the Romulan colonists they’ve been aiding – a golden tribute to one of their very own treasures

Completing this project will add enhancements to your Fleet Embassy on New Romulus. Artifacts found throughout New Romulus will be put on display in the main lobby of your embassy, as well as a monument to the Sword of the Raptor Star. This special project will be available around 10AM PDT on December 6, 2012, until around 10AM PDT on December 20, 2012.

Tribble Test Weekend Reward
Players who played on Tribble for at least one (1) hour during the designated test period have earned an exclusive Mol’Rihan Tribble.

If eligible, to claim your reward, log into Holo deck and visit the in-game C-Store from your minimap. Once in the C-Store, select the “Items” tab from the left and scroll down until you see the reward. Click on it and then click the “claim” button towards the lower-right section of the store. This is an account-wide reward that can be claimed on all current and future Federation and Klingon characters.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The Mol’Rihan Tribble requires Federation captains to be level 2+, and Klingon captains to be level 21+, before it can be claimed. You can only equip the Tribble while on a ground map.

From now until around 10AM PST on January 14th, 2013, the Feature Episodes are once again offering their special, unique rewards* for completion! Don’t miss your chance to (re)play the Feature Episodes and earn limited-time rewards.
These missions are wide and varied and the rewards are well worth getting;

The limited-time rewards are unique and each character may only have one of each of them.For players whose characters already have all the rewards, you will still want to re-play each of the series — players will be able to find a hidden accolade in each mission that rewards one (1) Lobi Crystal for completion of each accolade. As accolades can only be earned once per character, if you’ve already earned the accolade for a particular Feature Episode during this or a previous rerun, you would not be able to complete the accolade again.

(Aaron)

You can access all the missions by Using your Mission Journal (Press J or click the Hail button next to your minimap) to hail and transwarp to the different episodes; for Federation and Klingon Officers.
Simply click on the appropriate tab, I.e Dominion, Breen and so on.

When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis. With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction. As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew.” That is the synopsis that we have for the new film.

So what can we learn from the trailer and this poster. ￼ Well lets start with the poster,we see a devastated building nicely shaped to frame the villain in the Star trek Chevron. We see a skyline smouldering indicating devastation on vast scale. Was all this damage caused by just the villain? If so lets speculate as to who from the TOS canon it could be. First Khan strong yes,super intelligent yes. Embodied with super powers no.

Mitchell, strong yes,super intelligent yes. Embodied with super powers? Well if they feed in his transformation somewhere then yes and the revenge slant would fit. But lets not stop there in TOS there are two others that spring to mind first Trelaine,this i feel can be dismissed as he wouldn’t fit the revenge profile. The next person that springs to mind is Charlie X. He had super human powers,he has a motive for revenge and he could easily do what is shown in the movie. What troubles me about this one is the fighting scenes, Charlie was a boy stranded alone, combat techniques are not something he would have learned. So the puzzle continues. So lets turn to the trailer and see what we can gleam from it. We learn from the voice over that revenge is the order of the day,we see Kirk running through red shrubbery with what appears to be a Romulan, (brow ridges and shoulder pads can be seen). I am assuming Kirk is being chased as he runs off the edge of a cliff. Next Benedict drops into a fight,literally drops in from a great height but who is he fighting?, well at first you think Star Fleet but as Captain Revo pointed out to me you can see a Batleth,so Klingons?

Then we see Kirk hitting Benedict and we know from Leaked set photos there are images of Spock putting the neck pinch on him.

￼ Kirk really seems to have been through the wars on this one,his blooded,he seems extremely angry in some scenes and he also knows his assailant given the segment when his talking to Benedict. As to his Character Benedict himself said “He is very ruthless. He is not a clearly good or evil character. He is a villain but the actions he takes have intent and reason.” Which means he is calculating,he has reason and a path laid out that he will follow. As to the War zone

well that for me is the red tree and the possible Romulan bit. he can be spotted wearing a black Starfleet jersey, and he speaks of his “return”, so he clearly has history with the crew. ￼ What of Alice Eve who is she? Well if it is Mitchell that’s self explanatory if its not,well your guess is as good as mine hopefully when the next trailer drops we will learn more. The action looks bigger and better than ever before while the visual effects,particularly the Ship rising out the water look stunning. Its moments like that where your thankful JJ took his time. the poster showed London suffering some devastation (Britain being Benedicts birthplace although shame we get pounded), this appears to show San Francisco (which is where Starfleet Headquarters and Starfleet Academy are based) also under attack from above. We know from the synopsis that Starfleet is crippled in an attack here, and that there’s damage to Earth crashing the fleet into the planet would certainly accomplish that, so seeing a starship about to plough a city was certainly dramatic. But for now we continue to speculate Alice could even be Rand. Although i doubt it,one thing is for sure come next year this will be a blockbuster which we give us another film and hopefully Trek back on television at some point. ￼

Well it’s been a few weeks since Star Trek London finished,so people have post con blues still, others a hankering to go to Vegas next year and some crossing fingers and toes and hoping Startrek London returns. But how many will go back?.
The biggest gripe was the much touted but non existent virtual queuing system, plus the fact that the merchandise prices where severely overpriced. If they can sort out them two little details it may make a massive difference. That said the very fact it left a sour note with some people may make them think twice.
The other overriding factor is the guests. This year we had five captains and some stellar stars to boot. Next year will they be able to repeat the same?
I for one would love to see Robert Picardo, Robert Duncan McNiell and Linda Park to name a few.
Other people will obviously have favourites or just people they want to see. I do know from a personal view point I won’t buy a Gold ticket again, the perks it garnered where insufficient and the goodie bag dire.
So thoughts turn to Vegas for some and what lies in store over there. You hear good and bad things from both sides. Some think creation has to much control , the con is to sterile and so on. Others think that it’s a wonderfully well run con and everything is very well organised, I guess only time will tell.
Those that went to London will have a nice comparison if they also go to Vegas .
For now I return to my world of podcasting knowing that I have made new friends,new contacts and who knows what the future will bring. I do know I have some good memories, shame it rained most of the weekend though, but hey it is Britain .